Researching while queer: a research note about a genderqueer lesbian conducting qualitative research in the southeastern United States
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2020
Publication Title
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
DOI
10.1080/13645579.2020.1760551
ISSN
1464-5300
Abstract
In this research note, I use an autoethnographic approach to examine the challenges of qualitative research for queer scholars, and to bring the embodied, interactive, and gendered research experience to life. I compare and contrast how my queer embodiment and identity was received, or erased, in two different research contexts, both within the southeastern United States. The first study discussed involved in-person and phone interviews with Mississippi Christians about their views of gay and lesbian civil rights. The second study included phone interviews with trans men across the southeastern United States. I discuss my experiences as a queer qualitative researcher to demonstrate why self-reflection, reflexivity, and self-care are essential to queer, feminist, and critical methodologies across qualitative research. I analyze thoughts and feelings that arose when my interviewees challenged my feminist and queer commitment to social justice and reversed the expected power dynamics in a research relationship. The goal is to help prepare queer researchers for the emotional difficulties and trauma of qualitative research as they enter the qualitative research field.
Recommended Citation
Rogers, Baker A..
2020.
"Researching while queer: a research note about a genderqueer lesbian conducting qualitative research in the southeastern United States."
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24 (1): 31-1: Taylor & Francis Online.
doi: 10.1080/13645579.2020.1760551 source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13645579.2020.1760551
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/soc-anth-facpubs/171
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